THE ACADEMIC

ETHICAL
TRADITIONS
PART 1
•GAWI AND GAWA AND HABITUATION
• In Filipino the words gawi and gawa can give a
sense of what philosophers mean by ethical
action. Filipinos distinguish between
thoughtfulness, instinctive mannerism and
reflexes from gawa (action) and gawi
(inclination). In reflecting on how Filipinos use
these words, one can understood that human
actions are different from mere bodily
movements.
• Freedom figure closely into action and inclination. It means
not only the ability to act free from outside influences or the
independence from impediments to one’s wishes. It is the
willful act and decision that give form and shape to the actions
and inclinations of people. This freedom is oriented toward
the wherefore, the what for, and the whom for of the doings
of people.
• However, gawi and gawa are not identical. Gawa refers to the free
action that is oriented toward a particular end. For example, a
worker uses his/her free imagination and will to bring about services
that contribute to the well being of society. As one governed by free
decision making the creative worker embraces all the information
he/she can gather to effectively realize his/her purpose.
• The word gawi also refers to a free kind of work. However,
instead of focusing on a particular end like a product or
fulfillment, gawi refers to the kind of acts that people are used to
accomplishing. Gawi does not only refer to particular acts of a
person. A person’s kagawian or habitual; action reveals truth
about himself/herself.
•A worker who produces for the society is
judged skilled or unskilled. But a person
is judged good or evil, right or wrong
based on kagawian or habituation.
Kagawian is the Filipino equivalent of
ethos in Greek and mos or moris in
Latin.l
ETHICS AND ETHOS
• The term ethics comes from the Greek word ethos,
which means custom, a characteristic, or habitual
way of doing things, or action that is properly
derived from one’s character.
• The Latin word mos or moris (and its plural mores)
from which the adjective moral is drived is
equivalent to ethos.
• In etymological point of view ethical and moral are
therefore synonymous.
•For Aristotle properly focuses in the
human agent that is revealed
through his /her actions.
•Ethics for Filipino students is philosophy
of human action that allows them to
learn the art living. It is an art that
enables them to be reconciled with their
freedom and that which is expected of
them. Thus, ethics is a way for them to
find happiness.
• Plato’s insight into the Good – ethics being s discipline of study in
universities that fall under the umbrella of philosophy can also trace
its roots back to Plato as the systematic thinker who grappled with
the question of that which is good.
• A serious clam faced by Plato was given voice by a thinker named
Protagoras (481-411 BCE) who said that “man is the measure of all
things”. The implications of such a claim sit well with those who easily
let go of the validity of traditional mores ad ethos to arrive a
conclusion that is relativistic.
• Socrates (470 – 399 BCE), on the other, taught Plato about the
difficulty of coming to a knowledge of the truth. This difficulty
however did not mean impossibility for Socrates. He instilled this
rigorous questioning to his students and did not shy away from
interrogating even the traditional leaders of Athens. This resulted in
his death in 399BCE on charges of impiety and misleading the youth
with his ideas.